Against barbarity, poetry can resist only by confirming its attachment to human fragility like a blade of grass growing on a wall while armies march by. Mahmoud Darwish More Quotes by Mahmoud Darwish More Quotes From Mahmoud Darwish Nothing is harder on the soul, than the smell of dreams, while they're evaporating. Mahmoud Darwish smellsouldream I am from there. I am from here. I am not there and I am not here. I have two names, which meet and part, and I have two languages. I forget which of them I dream in. Mahmoud Darwish nameshere-i-amdream And you became like coffee, Mahmoud Darwish bitternessaddictioncoffee A person can only be born in one place. However, he may die several times elsewhere: in the exiles and prisons, and in a homeland transformed by the occupation and oppression into a nightmare. Mahmoud Darwish nightmareoccupationmay We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. Mahmoud Darwish captivesdesire And I tell myself, a moon will rise from my darkness. Mahmoud Darwish moondarkness If the Olive Trees knew the hands that planted them, Their Oil would become Tears. Mahmoud Darwish oiltreehands We suffer from an incurable malady: Hope. Mahmoud Darwish maladysuffering If you live, live free Mahmoud Darwish live-freestandingtree I thought poetry could change everything, could change history and could humanize, and I think that the illusion is very necessary to push poets to be involved and to believe, but now I think that poetry changes only the poet. Mahmoud Darwish illusionbelievethinking On this earth there is that which deserves life. Mahmoud Darwish deserveearth The days have taught you not to trust happiness because it hurts when it deceives. Mahmoud Darwish taughtdeceivinghurt Standing here, staying here, permanent here, eternal here, and we have one goal, one, one: to be. Mahmoud Darwish eternalstandinggoal Every beautiful poem is an act of resistance. Mahmoud Darwish very-beautifulresistancebeautiful Exile is more than a geographical concept. You can be an exile in your homeland, in your own house, in a room. Mahmoud Darwish exilehouserooms I see what I want of Love... I see horses making the meadow dance, fifty guitars sighing, and a swarm of bees suckling the wild berries, and I close my eyes until I see our shadow behind this dispossessed place... I see what I want of people: their desire to long for anything, their lateness in getting to work and their hurry to return to their folk... and their need to say: Good Morning. Mahmoud Darwish horseeyemorning I have learned and dismantled all the words in order to draw from them a single word: Home. Mahmoud Darwish i-have-learnedhomeorder My homeland is not a suitcase, and I am no traveller Mahmoud Darwish travellerhomelandsuitcases We are captives, even if our wheat grows over the fences/ and swallows rise from our broken chains./ We are captives of what we love, what we desire, and what we are. Mahmoud Darwish wheatbrokendesire I don't decide to represent anything except myself. But that self is full of collective memory. Mahmoud Darwish collective-memoryselfmemories
